Trusting Wikipedia is a decision to discard the current paradigm of what we know and how we know. Its a choice to adopt a methodology spawned from a technological advancement rather than a methodology proven by centuries of scientific advancement.

Openness and collaboration are great tools. But they are only tools. Research and scientific debate need to have a structure around them.

Not everyone who has an opinion is qualified.

Unfortunately, people have tendency to prefer truthiness to truth, and that’s where Wikipedia can be a hinderance to real education.

I’ve blogged about this further at http://www.vertabase.com/blog/wikipedia-knowledge-or-hype/